Hello everybody, I was wondering if somebody could guide me to a good beginners tutorial in compositing in After Effects. Basically what I want to learn is what to do with the render elements I render out of Max (using Vray) in After Effects.

Actually, I want to take my rendered model and drop it into a "real life" backround image and adjust the rendered elements to make it all blend nicely.

From what I understand Photoshop doesnt really cut it as a compositor is this correct? Or can I use it?

Please help Im pretty lost on all this any response would be greatly appericiated.

Thank you

scrimski

11-10-2009, 09:24 PM

Here's one for Shake.
http://www.danmanther.com/pages/renderlayers.html
Math behind it should be the same
From what I understand Photoshop doesnt really cut it as a compositor is this correct? Or can I use it?Works quite the same way as AE, but I wouldn't suggest it for anything else than stills.

sundialsvc4

11-11-2009, 02:25 PM

Start on your way with methodical on-line research of the topic. Watch the video tutorials (never mind what product they describe...). Read the books. Stare out the window. Think about it. Train your powers of observation.

Once you glom onto the essential idea of what must be done, and understand where the obstacles are, you can figure out how to do the work in whatever tool's at hand. But first, you need (product independent...) information. Study the road map; then study the car.

kidlizard

11-11-2009, 06:03 PM

Wow that was deep, thanks man.
I hear what your saying.

isotropy

11-12-2009, 02:18 AM

I've got a tutorial on multi-pass compositing here (http://vfxhaiku.com/2009/10/intro-to-multi-pass-compositing/) that might help. It's using Fusion, but all the same techniques can be used in After effects.

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